“We’re waiting for the news, there’s supposed to be an all staff email Friday, or maybe Monday.”
On any given month one of the local behemoths: Amazon, Starbucks, Microsoft, etc has a director or manager in my office bracing for their ReOrg.
Working for a large (or mid-sized) organization means change as the leadership strives to stay agile.
No matter if it’s your first time leading your team or if you’ve sat through countless ReOrg announcements, it’s always helpful to strengthen your ability to guide your staff during their more vulnerable moments.
During times of upheaval staff will have a variety of coping mechanisms. Some folks lose themselves in the work, some folks obsess over the pending announcement, and still others slow their production to a crawl.
Here are four common ways that types of fear during times of stress manifest in the work environment:
1. Fight: We’ve all heard about fight or flight in response to fear. In a work environment this can be seen in people who are bracing themselves to launch a push back: gathering allies, compiling negotiating frameworks, heightening their aggressive response towards people up the chain, lashing out via email, speaking in ultimatums, etc. Like all of four responses outlined here, it’s great for you as leader to remember that this is at the core, still a fear response and the staff person is alarmed and attempting to use the coping skill they know best.
2. Flight: Flight, the other half of the famous fear response. What does flight look like in a work setting? Clearly people are not standing up mid-announcement and running out the door and down the street! In a professional setting “flight” can be seen among people who launch into perpetual motion in response to the anxiety: they might ramp up multi-tasking to the point of inefficiency, they might move or talk faster than normal, they overcommit to the detriment of self and product and calendar religiously.
3. Scared stiff: The term scared stiff was coined to capture the way in which many people find that their minds and bodies lock up when they are having fear or anxiety. Again, high functioning adults don’t go catatonic or stiff as a board in the office, but they may show some of these traits: unusually high confusion –taking longer to process seemingly obvious information and instructions, they might get physically colder, talk much less or stop talking altogether, they might weep, and they might noticeably withdraw from social interaction.
4. Ostrich: The ostrich is known for sticking its head in the sand when danger is near, and this final category of reactions is for the folks whose go-to coping pattern is to “tune out” when reality gets too overwhelming. Like the ostrich, some people turn to outside sources to drown out the inner discontent. During times of stress and uncertainty they’ll have an uptick in behaviors like: surfing the internet, Pinterest, binge watching Netflix, repeatedly reading & checking the news, sports, spacing out and “pondering” –getting lost in a concept (lost being the operative word).
After troubleshooting the personnel issues that arise during times of upheaval in private session, I thought it would be useful to capture this guide to help others like you to de-code what you are seeing on the ground.
In addition to hitting your quarterly & annual goals, your role as leader is provide vision, help and moral support to these humans.
Your role is to see beyond the initial set of possibly perplexing behaviors and sharpen your ability see the human being at the core. This will guide your best/smartest decision making.
For additional management insights, coaching and to get the leadership support you deserve, contact me for a private phone consultation. –Laura